The difficulty about having NVLD is that it makes communication less than a commonplace activity. Add on top of that, the struggle of traversing the world after a traumatic event. During the worldwide crisis of the COVID pandemic, I found myself confined to my house and I felt incredibly alone and isolated. I wanted people to reach out to me but I was powerless to reach out to them. I can interact with others, however, the meat the meaning and context usually gets lost since those elements are typically within my mind.
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While everyone is going through difficult times, I really believe that families with a child who has an NVLD or similar disability are facing more difficulties. Since these students face many challenges in normal times. Read More
I can remember the beginning of each school year and having to complete a test that would help us find our own unique learning style. I wanted to know how to learn best and do well at school. I never had one particular learning style that helped me to learn. I often felt dumb with my peers, who had more of a set learning style and academics came easier for them. I was boxed into “one way of viewing” learning, that I did not realize that intelligence is not measured by a narrow set of standards, but a wide array of thinking. “Multiple Intelligences” is a theory that Howard Gardner views intelligence that people are smart in different ways, rather than a limited approach to thinking.
Howard Gardner lists eight different types of intelligences. Each type of intelligence is unique and has value to learning. The Eight types are Linguistic, Logical mathematical, spatial, body kinesthetic, musical intelligence, Interpersonal Intelligence, Intra-personal Intelligence, and Naturalist Intelligence. Read More
You are my rock, my foundation, and my anchor as I navigate through the anxiety of meeting someone new for the first time. You are the ones I have chosen to see for me, because sometimes it feels like my vision is blurry and I need to you to bring it into clearer focus so I can see things as they were intended. If you trust them, then it’s likely that I’m going to as well because I trust your judgement and also that you are capable of knowing who’s good for you in your life and in turn who is good for me. Read More
Living with an NVLD can have its complications. Misreading social interactions and picking up on social cues is one common challenge you may face growing up with an NVLD. This can cause you to either be too friendly or become too cold around others. Over the years I have faced this many times and understand that each situation brings its own challenges. Read More
During these strange times I have thought about how blessed my parents were to have Jim and Joann Adams as our role models as they also raised special needs and gifted children. Unfortunately, many with disabilities experience higher rates of isolation and lower rates of success from not having support. Fortunately I wasn’t isolated and our friendship with the Adams’ sets an outstanding example of how having a role model makes a difference.
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In the Fall of 2000, I found out that not everybody can multitask. I determined this as I was working on computer code in my basement office while broiling lamb chops upstairs in the kitchen. About an hour into my total coding immersion, the smoke detectors made their hellish but necessary high decibel blasts, yanking me from my narrow band of awareness. I ran upstairs to a smoky kitchen. I opened the oven and witnessed a wicked oven fire. Read More
My self-control also figured in my lost opportunity to study French in elementary school. Newton was in the vanguard in delivering French by TV. The folding walls between classrooms would open, and we would gather around one or two black and white sets to absorb French taught by a middle-aged Madame Slack in a PBS TV studio. This, to me, was French un-immersion. Read More
Seated in our sixth-grade classroom in Newton in the Fall of 1962, Jean, a pretty, tom-boyish girl, and my desk-pod mate, whispered that she wanted to dance with me at Mr. Champagne’s initial dance class after school. I was in the stratosphere over Jean’s invitation, but wary as my dancing had been at best down to earth. The Virginia Reel in gym class had left me reeling with confusion. Still I rose to the occasion and gave my most creative reply, “OK.” Jean’s choice could make my formidable task of surviving the dance class more likely and perhaps even exciting. The gym, the scene of all my struggles with gymnastics, now could mark my ascension to the boyfriend/girl-friend zone. We wouldn’t be a beauty and beast couple which was comforting. Jean was blond and lithe, and I was tall, thin, with freckled faced even features, and I could see OK enough to dance without my goony dark glasses. I was only uncomfortable with my feet which protruded out to give me a penguin gait.
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Growing up with an NVLD brought many challenges though what was most challenging was transitioning to a new school year. Like most with the disability I was so routine driven and after being off from school for two months it was so hard to go back.
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